Malappuram: Faisal, a reverted Muslim from Kerala had accepted Islam earlier this year. His mother embraced Islam as well after Faisal’s death.
On a local cleric’s advice who asked him to ‘Seek protection from the community’ Faisal (earlier known as Anil Kumar) said, “After embracing Islam, I have entrusted everything to Allah (God). If they want to kill me, let them.”
Belonging to an upper-caste Hindu Nair family, 56-year old Meenakshi changed her named to Jameela and has been faithfully performing Muslim prayer five times a day with daughter-in-law and grandchildren, who have converted to Islam by their own volition.
“I too have converted to Islam exercising my own free will. I will now spend the rest of my life with my son’s wife and children,” Jameela told The News Minute.
“Faisal used to joke at times about me taking up Islam. He never ever tried to force me even once, but he would often joke about how the name Jameela suited me. I am not fair like Faisal. I am a little on the darker side,” she smiles at the memory.
On November 19, Faisal, 32, was on his way to the local railway station to pick up his parents-in-law, but was hacked to death by a gang of unidentified men who were later identified as Sangh Parivar workers.
Eight persons including Vinod (Faisal’s sister’s husband) affiliated to the RSS were taken into custody by the police in connection with the murder predicting that Faisal could have been targeted for embracing Islam.
Vinod and some of his relative were upset about his conversion and had raised threats against Faisal several times.
“When he told us, neither my husband nor I opposed his decision. But Vinodh -my daughter’s husband- was terribly upset. He would often tell my daughter about how he wished to hack my son to death,” recalls Jameela.